Aqua Safari Shore Dive - 27 November 2002

Large Comfy Boats

Fully Stocked Dive Shop

Small Fast Boat

As usual, we were diving with Aqua Safari as our dive operator. We're always pleased with their operation, and this time was no exception; their equipment is first rate, their divemasters excellent, and their boats and captains top quality. They also have a rinse tank, storage and drying areas located in their shop which is a great convenience. However, the staff is always super cautious and treats you like newbie divers until you "prove yourselves", or someone else vouches for you. Usually we dive with the gang from Pisces Scuba which takes care of the problem, but this time we were there ourselves. In addition, the owner Donna, who knows us, was away, so we had to just prove ourselves the old fashioned way.

It was annoying when they actually argued with us when we asked for additional weight, and when we requested specific sizes. (I can't fit a five pound weight in my trip pockets no matter how hard they want me to try. ) Since we've done Cozumel a dozen times between us, this was pretty annoying. However, not for long - co-owner Bill overheard our discussion and told his staff to give us what we needed. Soon we had everything we needed... except...

We needed a nap. Badly! We were tired from travelling and from getting up at 5 AM, so we thought we'd take a nap before our checkout dive. Next thing we knew, the sun was setting. Oops - guess it's a "night checkout"!

We went and got our gear from Aqua Safari and headed to the left side of the AS pier. There was no boat traffic to worry about, but the shop staff insisted we use one of their floats. It was a crude inflatable, with simple twin wrapped around a two pound weight - and was a pain in the ass to deal with. Neither Beth nor I brought our cameras, as we usually prefer to concentrate on acclimation and weighting on our first dive.

But we coped with it, and it was a very pleasant introduction to Cozumel. We saw a freeswimming Sharptail Eel, a Balloonfish, two large Arrow Crabs entwined, and plenty of macro life. There was a lot of noise from the cruise ships in pier several hundred yards ahead of us, and it was a little creepy. But we didn't go very deep, nor very far, so we knew we had plenty of safety margin.